Caves

I have never been in a cave, and I am more than a little claustrophobic. In fact the idea of visiting the Colossal Caves Mountain Park, located in Saguaro State Park in Arizona hit several of my fear notes, (in alphabetical order) bats (which are park of the cave system,) caves and deserts. Other than that I was really looking forward to it. On the topic of fears, as I mentioned in the last post, we were camping, alone, in this desert park high on the mountain, with no services (read cell phone connections) in a locked campsite. However, we had committed ourselves, and  selected our campsite. There was lots of daylight left and nothing much else to do so we took the opportunity to spend the afternoon touring the  cave. However, before signing up for the tour, I verified that there would be no crawling through tight places (the very thought makes me panic). The experience was amazing, we walked up and down 360 steps, between the cave walls, awestruck at the shapes looming in dimly lit darkness, and respectful of the terrifying dark spaces that were just off the carefully maintained path. This adventure became and a precursor to an even more awesome cave on the following day.

These photos taken at Colossal Cave do not begin to capture the sense of time and earth I experienced under the ground. I am glad I went. I did not see even one Cave Bear, but our guide was knowledgeable and entertaining. I am now able to identify "cave bacon" on a moment's notice.

The following day, emboldened by the amazing and fascinating experience in the first cave, we headed down the mountain (me happy to have survived the night). After H's visit to the Air and Space Museum, we headed to Kartchner Caverns to "experience a stunning limestone cave in Southeastern Arizona that boasts world-class features. This “live” cave, discovered in 1974, is host to a wide variety of unique minerals and formations. Water percolates from the surface and calcite formations continue to grow, including stalactites dripping down like icicles and giant stalagmites reaching up from the ground."

We spent an hour and a half exploring this underground landscape. Photos are not permitted to protect the delicate formations. What an experience - we toured the Big Room, learned the amazing story of the how this cave was discovered and, for me, found an previously untapped interest in geology. Check out this video to get a sense of the cave. In my opinion, the video fails to express the sheer enormity of the space within the cavern.  This place came highly recommended as a MUST SEE. I agree. If you ever get the chance to  visit, do.  In addition, the campsite, where we spent two nights, was beautiful, and offered great desert hiking.

Other than the beauty of the stars in the utterly dark night sky, and the interesting shapes of the cacti, I cannot say that I see much beauty in the desert – at least not here, and not now. But I am fascinated by the history of these ancient places. Rock formations are millions of years in the making. Indian tribes lived on this land 800 years ago, and a huge saguaro hit by lightning will take more than two years to die, so, I am in no hurry to leave.

Today we are in Tucson. Tomorrow … we’ll see.